If I Were God

Ever have the thought cross your mind “If I were God…”? Did you think “Here’s what I would do…”? I’ll do it because it should be done! You know what I speak of. Some person does some despicable thing and his life seems undisturbed. Someone else having done comparatively little or nothing seems to have a truck load of trouble dump on them.

Why do those who legalize abortion get away with it? Why do those who abuse or molest children get to go on their merry little way? And on and on we go.

The Bible addresses this subject on a few occasions, but this just recently jumped off the page at me. 1 Timothy 5:23-24 says:

Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.

There’s a great explanation for us. The Lord tells us to expect that some men’s sin blow up in their faces almost immediately while others may never in their lives face many obvious results. They do experience consequences, just not those dramatic, out-in-the-open ones that we so love to see. I mean some Nazi tormentors were brought to justice in 1945 while others are dying of old age with new identities in beautiful locales around the globe. How haunted they have lived, however, or how much time they spend jumping at every shadow, we have no clue.

Some of us have our sins knock us over before we leave the scene of the crime while others spend their lives being chased by their sins. The lesson is the same: sin is devastating and we must run to Jesus Christ.

You may be glad to have Christ’s forgiveness, but have something stuck in your craw about some who are “getting away with it.” What we are really questioning is the justice of God. Does He hand out unfair judgments in His world? In our more sane moments we know our God is just and even explains that He will not “be mocked” (Galatians 6:7).

So our two issues really are:

1. Appearances—The Lord is not making the judgment as apparent as we would like.

2. Timing—The Lord is not acting as quickly as we would like.

Besides the issue of it just being all about our likes and dislikes, we forget that the Lord lives in eternity while we live in time. Yes, my life is passing, but His is not. I may have occasion to get in a hurry as I may run out of time, but He never has reason to get in a rush. The problem is that I view the finish line as my time here while He has time until His Kingdom is brought to completion.

Verse 25 tells me more. The positive side is true as well. Some have their good honored here while others die unsung. Remember no martyr ever gets to read the glowing accounts of his or her sacrifice. Sometimes in life little recognition comes while others receive multiple accolades.

The Lord will catch all of that up, too. Remember He has eternity to work in. All accounts will be settled and not one shred of injustice will survive eternity.